Literature
Seven Sonnets Read by Webcam Models
Author, poet, and porn enthusiast John Reed got several webcam models to read his sonnets in the outfits and settings in which they’re usually stripping and titillating their viewers. These short videos put both the poems and the webcam models in new...
One Hundred Literary Rumors
I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’ve heard a lot of shit. People whispering in hallways and Gmail chatting about all kinds of dark secrets. People up in parties with their coats and hair all looking nice and their mouths just full of you wouldn’t...
Scott McClanahan’s Animal Magnetism
I think of Scott McClanahan as a kind of reauthenticated version of everything that’s good about Southern writing. I’ve seen him silence a room at least five different times now with just the words that came out of his mouth. Scott just released his...
Anne of Green Gables Is Now Totally Boneable
Anne of Green Gables used to be a lovably homely redheaded orphan. Which is why the story's new book jacket has been causing a stir among fans. Based on the new cover, I would guess that 'Anne of Green Gables' is the sultry tale of a romp in the barn...
He’s Not Dead Yet? Life with Gene Gregorits
Gene Gregorits is the greatest, truest writer you never heard of, unless you read the news right after he cut off his earlobe and ate it. Twice. How that hurricane of a man ever managed to sit still long enough to complete eight books, including the...
All the Books I Read in 2012
I hate end-of-the-year best-of lists. They are short-sighted and usually hive-mindish. They feel counter-productive or something, like they are trying to trick you. Instead, here’s a list of everything I read this year, 135 books, in order.
Solo Piano Music
Before reading the official report, the investigator announced his intention to use every tool at his disposal to protect Fateh. He kicked out everyone who had gathered—the journalists, political activists, civil-society organizations, and curious...
Prelude to 'Solo Piano Music'
Like much of the literary elite in Syria, Fawwaz Haddad has watched his country disintegrate over the past 20 months. His stories explore the limits placed on Syrian society, zig-zagging between high-minded principles and the dirty business of everyday...
Considering Roberto Bolaño and 'Woes of the True Policeman'
I absolutely hated Roberto Bolaño the first time I read him. I’d heard the endless hype surrounding the release of translation after translation, a kind of post-death onslaught in the manner of some literary Tupac who kept pumping books out after...
I Asked My Dad, Who Has Dementia, to Annotate Jonathan Franzen’s ‘How to Be Alone’
When my father lost his memory to dementia, everything in the house around him became new. He often can’t remember how sitting in a chair traditionally works, but turning the chair upside down makes total sense. The rugs aren’t floor coverings any more...
The Forgetful Ghost
If you claim to like books and reading and don’t know who William T. Vollmann is by now, there is even less hope for this thing we call humanity than what can be gleaned from his prose. Bill sent us this great story about an amnesiac spirit which is...
The Novelizer
Sadly, the market for novelizations has begun to dry up. So I called Alan Dean Foster, author of novelizations for many films like 'Alien' and 'Star Wars,' to find out how the science-fiction fans of tomorrow will satisfy their appetite for transmedia...